Smart Home

Smart Lighting Controls

What is here, and what decides it

The smart lighting controls here include Lutron's Vive wireless system and Grafik Eye preset units, the hubs and starter kits that tie them together, smart dimmers, switches and downlights, and a thermostat. Choose by the driver in the fixture first. Phase dimmers suit screw-in LED bulbs and most homes. 0-10V controls suit fixtures with a 0-10V driver. A non-dimming driver can only be switched.

Homes, small offices, and what to check

A home retrofit fails on two things: a switch box with no neutral wire, and an LED load below the dimmer's minimum. That is why a single 9-watt bulb flickers on a dimmer rated for 600 watts. A conference room or small office suits Vive, which adds occupancy sensing without pulling control wire. The range here is narrow, so call 888-307-3700 before planning a whole building around it.

Frequently Asked Questions

A standard dimmer varies the load at the switch and does nothing else. A smart control separates the control signal from the power path, so it can take schedules, occupancy and daylight input, report its state, and be regrouped in software without rewiring. The practical costs are a neutral conductor in the switch box and a minimum connected load, neither of which a plain dimmer needs.

Only if the bulbs are marked dimmable and the total load clears the dimmer's LED minimum. A dimmer rated for 600 watts of incandescent may need 25 watts or more of LED before it stops flickering. Check the dimmer maker's compatibility list for your exact bulb. If the bulbs buzz or drop out at the bottom, raise the low-end trim setting before replacing anything.

Often, where the control is wireless and the load is already switched somewhere usable. Homes wired before the 2011 National Electrical Code often have no neutral in the switch box, which rules out many electronic controls; choose a model sold as no-neutral. Three-way circuits need matched companion devices, and non-dimming drivers will switch but never dim. Open one box before buying for the whole house.

They use different architectures. Vive is wireless: sensors, remotes and load controllers talk to a hub, so it retrofits without pulling control wire. Grafik Eye is a wired preset control unit that switches and dims its zones directly from the panel. Device count per hub and zone count per unit are published per model, so count your devices and zones against the specific model before ordering.

Any control with a 0-10V output will drive them; the limit is electrical. Each driver sinks a few milliamps on the control pair, and the control has a total sink current rating, so count drivers against that rating before settling a zone size. The pair is a separate Class 2 low-voltage run and is polarity sensitive. Check the driver's low end too: 10 percent and 1 percent differ.

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